Mercy: Queen’s Birds of Prey: Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance (Queen's Birds of Prey Book 1)

by Kathi S. Barton

  “You lost your leg too. And your foot on the other leg. You’re lucky that you didn’t lose them both to the thigh. How much will that cost for you to pay me back?” It was cruel, and he hated himself for saying it like that, but his brother was hurting him too. “Would you like to see?”

  Instead of waiting for him to answer, Joel stood up and jerked the tent off his bed. There was blood on the little blue padding on the bed, and the stumps where his foot and leg had been were bleeding through. Saul just stared at them, like he was trying to take it all in.

  “You did this to me.” Joel wanted to point out that he’d done nothing to him at all. “You left me out there to die, and when you had the chance, you had them operate on me so that I’d be a cripple all my life.”

  “You did this to yourself, Saul. You knew that you were a diabetic. They told you about it ten years ago. The prison knew it, and that’s why you were on a diet there. They said that they even gave you a prescription to get filled to make sure you were okay. But you never once picked it up. Why? Why would you do that to yourself?” Saul pulled his eyes away from his body to glare at him. “You can be upset with me all you want, but we both know this was all your doing.”

  “You think you know everything, don’t you? A man with a wife, money to burn, and you have not one thing to give to me. All your life you got whatever you wanted, while I was left in the dust. Mom even made you cakes for your birthday. All I got was a single cookie.” He asked him if Mom had known what his health was like. “Of course she did, you moron. That’s why she hated me so much. I had to have everything special to eat. But I wanted everything to be special for me all the time, like new clothing when you didn’t get some, a new coat instead of the used one that Dad had outgrown, I never got anything because Mom and Dad hated me.”

  “Because we were broke, Saul. Didn’t you understand that?” Saul asked him why that should matter to him. “Because to give you everything that you wanted, we would have had to go without. Don’t you see that?”

  “Again, how is that my burden to carry? I’m special. And everyone needs to see that.” Joel sat back down after laying the cover over Saul. “Like that’s going to make it any better, you fucking idiot. You had them take me apart so that you think you’ll be safe from me. But you won’t be. Not ever. I want you to go out, kill someone, and bring their legs to me. The doctor will just have to put them back on me.”

  “You can’t be serious.” Saul asked him why he thought that he wasn’t. “Because first of all, I’m not killing anyone for you. Ever. And secondly, there isn’t any way that anyone is going to put you back together. This is what you did to yourself by not taking care of your body.”

  Joel stood up.

  “Sit your ass back down. I’m far from finished with you.” Joel started to sit—it had been ingrained into his head to obey Saul or face the pain. But he stood his ground, lifting his chin up, feeling like a better man. “You sit that fucking ass of yours down and do what I told you. I will not be a cripple, Joel. I’m not a man that can deal with that sort of thing. Do what I told you, now.”

  “No.” Joel felt better for that, standing up to Saul and standing his ground. “No, I will not be your whipping boy again. You’ve been set up to go to a nursing home after here. They’ll make sure that you’re on a diet that won’t kill you off. And they’ll help you acclimate yourself to being unable to walk. After that, I believe you’ll go back to prison, one that can care for your needs. I hope you have a good life, though if I was honest with you, I could care less if you do or not. I’m going to tell the desk not to contact me anymore. I won’t come here again; none of my family will visit you. And you’ll be all alone. The way you should have been all along.”

  Joel left Saul then. After stopping by the desk and telling them what he wanted, he made his way to his family. Hugging them to him, Joel could hear Saul down the hall, still screaming for him to come back and kill someone for him. And to pay him.

  “Let’s go home, all right?” They did, talking about anything but Saul on the way there. “After we get the truck to go to the storage unit, I’d very much like to have dinner and make plans to go on a long trip with my favorite girls. Then, when we return, we’ll set up the nursery.”

  “Sounds like a wonderful plan.” Mercy kissed him and held him before they went into the house. “Are you all right?”

  “Yes. I think I am. I’m not going to see him again. I can’t do that. It’s too much.” Mercy said she understood. “Thank you. For everything. I love you.”

  “And I love you.”

  Chapter 11

  The storage warehouse that they’d used over the decades needed some repairs. Mercy was just looking at one of the smaller pieces when she spied a cracked window. Yes, she decided, it was time to get this thing updated. Perhaps even put in a bathroom or two. She was forever having to pee nowadays.

  They found the jukebox right away, even plugged it in and listened to the old tunes on it as they searched for anything they wanted. It had been a long time since anyone had been in here, and there was a memory with everything they uncovered. She found the canopy bed just as she was thinking about it. Miley squealed with delight when Piper, who had owned it, said she could have it.

  “But what about if you have a daughter? Won’t you want her to have it?” Piper laughed and uncovered the second one. “You have two of the same bed? What on earth for?”

  “I forgot that I had it. You have to remember, we have been around for a long time. That one that I gave you was in the castle when we raided it. Dante, I think, would have loved for you—the first of many grandchildren, I’m betting—to have it. It’s all hand made. But I do think you’ll need to have a mattress special made for it. It’s very wide and long.”

  There was a dresser that went with it, and a high boy. Things for Miley were set, as far as the little girl was concerned. Mercy was still looking for the queen’s bed when Joel unearthed a large trunk.

  “Do you have the key to it?” Mercy told him to touch it, saying special words. “Seriously? That’s all I have to do?”

  “Yes, keys were basically the same back then and forever coming up missing. So Dante came up with a way for it to work without one.” Joel asked her what the words were. “Falcon, hawk, eagle, phoenix, vulture, and owl. Us.”

  “Why not your names?” Esme said that they didn’t have names back then. They had picked out their own. “So, you thought of Mercy?”

  “Yes, well, there’s a gory story that goes with that.” Mercy looked at Blaze when she said she wanted to tell it. “It’s not true, just so you know.”

  “It is true. She would forever be begged for mercy while we were fighting. One man begged her for mercy over and over until it sort of stuck with her. So, whenever anyone saw her great falcon coming for them, they’d start begging. Mercy wasn’t much given back in those days, so you know.”

  The trunk was opened, and Mercy watched as Miley and Joel took out several of the pieces and marveled over them. Some of the pieces of jewelry she remembered, but most she didn’t. There were bejeweled knives, as well as a couple of crowns that they’d won in victory. Also, some very pretty gems, none of which had meant anything to them at the time.

  “I’d like to take one of these and put it in my room. If that’s all right with you guys.” They all agreed that Miley could have it. “I know that it’s expensive and I will take care of it. But I’d like to wear it sometimes. Just to feel like a queen.”

  “Well, that one is a male crown.” They all laughed when Miley put it back in the trunk. But Piper bent and picked up a smaller one, one that was much more ornate than the rest. “This one, I believe, was taken from a woman that had stolen it from the castle we were raiding. She had tried to buy me off with it. Of course, like Mercy, we didn’t take it. What use would a giant bird have with a crown anyway?”

  Miley still wanted it, even after the story. It was beautiful with all the gold and gems.

  As Mercy mad
e her way through the rest of the things in the warehouse, she looked around for some of the furniture that they’d wanted for the new house.

  “There is a bed over there that is the biggest bed I’ve ever seen.” She followed Joel to where it was broken down and leaning against the wall. “I mean, from the width of the headboard, I’d say it’s about eight feet wide. What the hell kind of mattress would that take?”

  “Not a mattress back then. Ticking. And straw. If someone was very wealthy, they’d have wool in it. But that usually would bring out all kinds of critters.” She didn’t know where it had come from, however. “We would take things from the castles that we destroyed to sell, or to be used by someone that needed things. Mostly the wooden things, like this, would have been split up and used for fire. I don’t have any idea why this was saved. But I do know that these marks here? They’re from Esme’s claws when she carried it back to the encampment. If you want it, which I don’t mind at all, we can have a mattress made for it.”

  “I do. I don’t know why. It’s very ornate and dark, but I love the dragons on the posts, as well as the one curled up at the top of the headboard. It’ll be like we’re being watched over as we sleep.” Joel grinned at her as he continued. “I’ve been meaning to ask you, were there dragons during your time?”

  “There were. Not as many as there used to be before we started wars, but there were enough to darken the skies during the day. Their flames were hot enough to burn down a village as they flew by. And when sheep came up missing, it was said that they’d taken them, when more than likely the few that were gone had been taken by a neighbor or a passing family.” He shivered, and she smiled. “Did you think that there wouldn’t be? I mean, look at the detail on the dragon there. Where do you think that design stemmed from?”

  “I was hoping, I guess, that someone had a great imagination. I know you mentioned it before, but I didn’t let my mind wrap around it. I guess I was hoping you were teasing me.” She told him not for that. “Yes, well, I can see that now. What else have you found? I have to admit, I love that table. It’s sort of barbaric looking with the chairs like they are, but it appeals to me on a certain level.”

  It was a long thinnish table that would seat fourteen, if the chairs were any indication. She had kept it from one of the last castles that they’d invaded. Like Joel, she had no idea why it appealed to her, or even what she thought she’d do with it as a bird. But it might have been the way the table looked just like what it was—a large middle slice of a grand old tree.

  The chairs were barbaric in how they were adorned. Atop each of the ears, the very tip of the back rails, was an animal of the forest. Rabbits and moles. There were birds too, smaller ones like the others might have been. But the head chair, it had a tall falcon on each side, and the arms were carved to look like the wings.

  She’d only just realized that she’d never sat in the thing. For all she knew it could be the most uncomfortable dining set she’d ever seen. Joel sat down in it and smiled. She waited for him to tell her that he hated it, but instead, he told her that it was comfortable. Like a man twice or so his size had made it soft and pliable for him to use. Mercy sat down in one of the other chairs and felt the same thing. Like it had been made for them to use.

  “There is a great deal of stuff in here.” She told Jude that she’d forgotten how much. “I was at first thinking that we could sell it off—we don’t really have much use for this much furniture—but then I had a better idea. I think I’m going to buy the Darkberry Mansion and turn it into a bed and breakfast. I think that sucker has like fifteen bedrooms.”

  “You’d use this stuff in it?” Jude nodded and said that whatever they didn’t want, or she didn’t want to keep, they could put a price tag on it at the B&B. “That’s wonderful, Jude. I mean, with the restructure of the town and businesses coming in, it would be sort of neat to have something like that for people to stay in. Also, Blaze is talking about putting some of the smaller pieces and the pictures that we have into a museum-like setting that people might want to see as well. I think there are some plates and things over in one of the other trunks that you can use. And a lot of stuff in the cave.”

  “Cave? I thought this was it. I mean, you said cave before, but this is dark and such. I just assumed this was all there was.” Jude told Joel this wasn’t even a drop in the hat of what they had stored away. “More furniture too?”

  “No, the cave would have been damp after all these years, so at some point in all this time we commissioned to have this place built. Mostly it was used for crops and such, but that soon died out. But this stuff, it’s been in here for centuries. We had fans put in some time ago, then later there was a dehumidifier installed. It’s why everything is so dry and without mold. We’re going there today. You should see what you can have there too.”

  The trip was planned, but Miley wasn’t going this time. They were headed there as birds, and she wasn’t able to fly just yet. She could be a bird, they’d found out, but she was still having balance issues, and so she had to wait before taking to the air.

  It didn’t take long to get there, but the flight was made longer by all of them playing in the sky. It had been a long time since they’d all had been together like this. And having Joel there to see his enjoyment through fresh eyes made them all happy. The trees were just turning too, their colors so bright in the evening sun that Mercy wanted to linger longer, just to be free of the stress of life right now. Landing near the opening, she put her hand on the large stone and said the words that would open it. Nothing so fancy as the names of their birds. It was simply “Lady Dante, Queen of Castle Duncan, give me entrance.”

  The large stone groaned as it moved out of its resting place. There had been weeds and trees growing around the area, and instead of killing them with the stone moving, they simply moved out of the way. Dante wanted nothing or no one to suffer unnecessarily.

  The entrance was bright with sunlight. Mercy knew that the deeper they went into the belly of the mountain it would grow darker. As soon as they reached the cave where they had stored things—the queen had saved all this for them—the way would be bright again. The mountain, knowing who they were, would open an opening wide and deep so that the sunlight would be surrounding them in the place of treasures.

  “Oh my. Oh my, oh my. There is much more than I could even imagine here.” Joel walked around the trunks and piles of coins and gold. Silver too was stashed in here, as well as gems the size of his head. “You could put the national banks out of business with all this.”

  He never touched anything, Mercy noticed, but kept his hands at his back while he peeked into whatever he saw that interested him. Leaving him to look around, she went to the walls to find what she’d wanted since falling in love with the man.

  The rings were just where she’d seen them last—wedding bands made of the purest silver and adorned with a single diamond on the woman’s band. The diamond was pink, a lovely shade of the palest color she’d ever seen. She knew, too, where she’d gotten it from. Joel joined her when she called for him.

  “The ship that was bringing the king to Dante’s castle had these on his ship when he was coming across the sea. There were many more pieces he brought—not for Dante, but for the new bride that was being held in the lower chambers of the ship.” Joel took both pieces and asked her what happened to the woman. “She was nearly dead when we got to the boat. They had forgotten about her, I guess, and she starved, too weak to try and move. It wouldn’t have mattered to him, I don’t suppose—it had not mattered to him that she didn’t want to come with him. She had a husband of her own, four sons too. I guess that is why he took her—she was ripe to bear him a son.”

  “You killed him.” She nodded, then shook her head. “I’m assuming that you all did. Went out to sea to kill the man who took your queen’s life, so to speak?”

  “No, it was only I that sunk the ship. I was angry, you see. Not because Dante had died, but that she had given us the abili
ty to shift into humans. The others were happy, in a way, I guess. I blamed it all on him. It was, I guess, his fault really. But to me, he was the sole reason that she had died. So, I took the biggest boulder I could find and dropped it from a great height to sink his ship. But I promise you, Joel, I saved anyone that was there against their will. And there were quite a few of them.”

  “And these rings? You found them while searching the ship?” She told him that she’d found them when she’d found the bride. They were hers and her husband’s. The king had killed her family so that she’d be free to go. “Such a sad story to go with a set of wedding rings. Don’t you think?”

  “Perhaps. But you see, she begged me to take them with me before she died. To give them love and life again. That the sorrow that was attached to them should be erased by a true love, one that could make the wrong right for her. She told me to marry someday, have many children, and give the rings to my first-born son, that he too could find happiness in such a beautiful beginning.”

  “That’s very lovely.” He slipped her ring on her finger and she did the same to his. The rings fit them as if they’d been made only for them. “I will give you as much happiness and safety as you have given me and mine. I will only love you, Mercy Oliver, for the rest of my days.”

  They kissed, and it felt like they were married for the first time.

  ~*~

  Duncan watched them as they moved in and out of the cave. He’d been waiting here for so long that he despaired of them ever coming. When he saw the younger man with them, he smiled. Mercy had found her mate.